Tuesday, November 6, 2007

This is my first chance to write anything since the events of this past weekend and my original plan was to write a big piece talking about the Lions turning the Broncos into Barbaro (too soon?) and Michigan beating Michigan State. But then this stuff came out and it needs to be addressed all on its own.

Sparty is all up in arms about Mike Hart's post game press conference where he said the following about MSU taking a 10 point lead halfway through the fourth quarter of Saturday's game...

"I thought it was funny. They got excited. Sometimes you get your little brother excited when you're playing basketball, and you let him get the lead, and then you come back and take it back."

Not the most intelligent comment in the world, but after hearing reports that MSU upperclassmen were telling the underclassmen to "savor the moment you beat Michigan," on the sidelines after the Caulcrick TD you can see where he's coming from at least. Well today MSU head coach Mark Dantonio decided to take the "high road" with Hart and said the following...

"Does Hart have a little brother? Or is he the little brother?" (and then makes a gesture to show that Hart is short.)

Seriously? The HEAD COACH of a major college football team is trading jabs in the media with a 21 year old kid and resorts to calling him SHORT?!?! This is the comeback? Who's the kid and who's the adult here? Hart said something that was in the heat of the moment and probably stupid, but he's a young kid and it was moments after an emotional victory. Dantonio is saying this TWO DAYS after the fact, and he resorts to petty short jokes. But did he stop there? Nope. In reference to Michigan staging a "moment of silence" for Michigan State on the field after the game, Dantonio said this...

"If they want to mock us, I'm telling them, it's not over. They can print all that crap they want all over their locker room. It's not over. It'll never be over here. It's just starting. You don't have to disrespect people. If they want to make a mockery of it, so be it. Their time will come."

I find it funny that he gets so pist off about this. Mostly because HE BROUGHT IT ON HIMSELF! After Michigan lost to App State, Dantonio was doing a post game interview on WJR and said that maybe they should have a "moment of silence" for the University of Michigan. Don't talk trash if you can't deal with the aftermath. It's just so funny that he jokingly mocks Michigan in a radio interview and then when it comes back to bite him in the ass he plays the "disrespect" card. He stoked the flames of this rivalry since the moment he got on campus (the BEAT MICHIGAN clock being one of the examples) and can't deal with what he has wrought.

Moving on, Jehuu Caulcrick and Brian Hoyer also voiced their displeasure over how Michigan handled the victory. Let's start with Caulcrick. For a bit of a refresher let's see what Jehuu said after Michigan lost to App State....

"It's like two wins. We watched the game and were cheering and singing the fight song. It was great."

Funny. How many wins does it feel like now? If that does count as two wins are you suddenly bowl eligible? Anyway, today he spoke about how he was "disrespected" after the game by Michigan's Terrance Taylor.

"I was walking off the field and he came up to me. I don't want to talk to you. You guys just won, go celebrate with your team. You don't need to talk to me.'Then it went on from there. Then we started talking back and forth saying words I'm not going to say right now. It just goes back to winning with class."

Winning with class huh? Hmmm....why does this strike me as odd coming from Caulcrick. I can't quite put my finger on it....

(HT to mgoblog for video) Oh yeah. That whole thing. Caulcrick (#30) was one of the ringleaders of the MSU flag planting incident at Notre Dame. And now he's lecturing someone ELSE on winning with class? He needs to just shut the hell up.

And that brings us to Brian Hoyer. I find Hoyer's comments to be the funniest so I left them for last. Here goes....

"Let's put it this way, if anybody hadn't taken this personal up until this point, it's personal now. It just shows what kind of class (Hart) has. We don't feel they really deserved to win that game. I'm sure they walked away feeling a little bit lucky coming out of it, too. I can guarantee you come next year, that (Hart's quote) will be sitting up on our bulletin board."

I put a little bold in there to show you the really stupid part. Michigan didn't deserve to win? Why is that Hoyer? One would argue that blowing a 10 point lead with 7:40 to go on your own field an indictment on why YOU didn't deserve to win. Generally speaking the team that scores the most points wins and that's what Michigan did Saturday. Losers talk about who "deserves" to win. Winners just go out there and win. Here's the deal, how about you go out there and, you know, WIN SOMETHING! I don't think you're really scaring anyone with these "now it's personal" comments. All we heard this year was how Michigan State was focusing on this game, and how the rivalry was taken up a notch. And what happened? Sparty lost again. Now it's supposed to be different because it's "personal?" Please.

Michigan State players talked a lot of crap after Michigan lost to App State, and now that's coming back to them. Deal with it. The Spartans should keep their mouths shut until they actually do something of note on the football field. This is a team that's won two Big Ten games over the past two seasons (worst record in the conference by the way), hasn't beat Michigan since 2001 and hasn't been to a bowl since 2003. Why don't you worry about trying to scrape two wins together just to get to the Motor City Bowl instead of worrying about Michigan players "disrespecting" you after you blew a 10 point fourth quarter lead on your own field.

In the end Hart was stupid for saying what he said. Does it make me happy as a Michigan fan to hear some of that stuff? Of course. It still doesn't change the fact that it was a stupid comment to make, but the difference between Hart trash talking and Spartans trash talking? Scoreboard folks. Hart is 4-0 against MSU, so while he's stupid for saying what he said, at least he's backed it up on the field.

The Spartans need to shut the hell up until they do something on the field to back it up.